Remission Can’t Be Denied Only Because Conviction Is In A Heinous Crime: Patna HC [Read Judgment]

The object of the Section is not to condemn such persons but to ensure that having spent a substantial period of their sentence, they be permitted to come back into society, the bench said.The Patna High Court, in Ravi Pratap Mishra vs. State of Bihar, has observed that merely because a person was convicted in a heinous offence, it is not a ground to deny privilege which the legislature. The Patna High Court, in Ravi Pratap Mishra vs. State of Bihar, has observed that merely because a person was convicted in a heinous offence, it is not a ground to deny privilege which the legislature has conferred on a convict of Section 432 of Code of Criminal Procedure. The court also held that the opinions of the Jail Superintendent, the Superintendent of Police, the Probationary Officer, the trial judge are guiding factors to enable the state Sentence Remission Board to come to an independent opinion, but it is not bound by what is said in any one or all of the opinions. “It is only when there is serious apprehension about their future conduct, serious and inevitable apprehension about their future conduct upon their release which is bona fide born out from the records that the Board would be legitimately justified in refusing to release the convict otherwise it is not bound by the opinion of the authorities though, as noted above, they are guiding factors to be taken into account,” said the court, while setting aside the decision of a board rejecting the remission application of a convict who spent 15 years in jail.